Tag Archives: Minke / Skylab

Event, inthemix.com.au, Review, Writing

Mark Rae & Veba @ Minke / Skylab

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6/6/03
There are, unfortunately, only a few promoters in Adelaide who take bigger risks than usual to bring us, the dance music loving public, the BEST and most ORIGINAL DJs and dance artists. When other promoters are content to bring out the same tired old acts we’ve seen so often, or beating the “old school” horse to death, the guys at Minke bring us people like DJ Krush a few weeks ago, and Mark Rae last night.

When we arrived we were greeted by a rather small crowd and a line up that said Mark and Veba were on at Midnight. They didn’t come on at midnight, but another act with a singer came on. I never caught their name, which is unfortunate, as they were quite good. They sounded much like Portishead, with those darker sounding beats over which lush cabaret style vocals are sung. There was a brief intermission where another DJ played, and due to the line up change again I wasn’t sure who this was, but he played nice, uptempo, dubby breaks. The crowd had grown quite considerably by this time, which is always a good thing.

Mark Rae’s mixing is sublime. Understated scratching and smooth as silk mixing, seamlessly integrating the funkiest hiphop styled breaks with the jazziest soul around. Combine this with the delectably soul filled voice of Veba and you have a truly wonderful performance. The main thrust of the music was more uptempo and funky than I was expecting, having previously heard a lot of Rae & Christian mixes, but the crowd lapped it up, and they had everybody on the dancefloor within minutes of starting. Not only did Mark and Veba perform impeccably, they seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves, with Veba singing and dancing amongst the crowd, and Mark Rae’s wandering around before his set handing out CDs, and happily signing them and chatting to people.

The crowd was a little smaller than might have been hoped for, but it was enough to create the warm, intimate vibe that I love about Minke / Skylab, and Mark and Veba didn’t seemed fazed at all, but rather relished the friendly atmosphere. The only downside to the night was leaving by taxi and having to endure the ridiculous pap on the radio. I think I preferred it when taxi drivers used to tell you the world’s problems, and how to solve them. Going from the wonderful beats and awesome soul of Mark and Veba to the pathetic whine of Brittney clones is NOT a pleasant experience.

Event, inthemix.com.au, Review, Writing

DJ Krush Minke / Skylab

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13/05/03
My expectations for this gig weren’t too high, as it was a Tuesday night as well as being on the night before Grand Master Flash. I expected a small, intimate crowd at Minke, and I expected it to be downstairs as, although Sky Lab has a much better sound system, upstairs looks so desolate with few people in it. Imagine my surprise as it was quite a packed out gig, with a very impressive sized crowd for a hiphop night on a Tuesday in Adelaide.

I’ve seen Krush twice before, once at Vibes on a (not so) Summer’s day, where the venue changed at the last minute due to rain storms, and on NYE 1999/2000. Although his music is usually quite different from the traditional notions of hiphop, the last times he has played here I thought that he was good, although rather unadventurous. For example, on NYE he started playing his weirder triphop styled stuff, but then switched to old school to get the crowd moving.

Kim Dezen warmed the crowd up with an excellent set of party breaks, getting the people up and dancing, although it was very obvious that we were all waiting for Krush. Krush came on at about 12:45am, which is in my mind a little too late for a DJ to start on a Tuesday night, but the crowd was still packed on the dance floor when he came, so maybe that belief is just because I’m getting old.

From the first track, I knew we were in for something completely different, both in terms of how I’ve seen Krush play in the past, and also how hiphop is usually represented. Firstly, apart from about 3 tunes, I knew none of what he played. And I wasn’t the only one asking, “Where the hell does he get his stuff?” afterwards. Usually hiphop DJ’s play classics to get the crowd going, but not Krush. Krush played a set of new and different stuff, things that we will probably not hear again unless we see Krush here again soon.

The next thing that was remarkable was his scratching. He uses the echo effects to produce spooky, discordant sounds, and echoes the beats to produce a new beat, which he then combines with the beat of the next tune. This wall of noise captures and augments the mood. That mood being one that is dark and powerful, but without being menacing. When I interviewed Krush, he said that September 11 had a deep impact on his music, and I think it really does show. There was a sense of trepidation to the sounds of his music, but it was more of a warning than a threat. It’s deep, dark, powerful and cerebral. It takes you to places that other hiphop, and most other music doesn’t.

I normally don’t wank on like this in reviews, but something about what he played and the way he played it forces and encourages me to. There are very few things I have seen or heard to compare to what and how he played, and I am more than pleased I witnessed it, and that so many others were there to enjoy something completely different, intriguing and inspiring. Adelaide needs more of this type of thing to happen here, we’ve missed out on far too many good, alternative dance and hiphop acts in the past. Hopefully the success of this night, and the brilliance of Krush’s set will encourage promoters to take risks a little more and have faith in an Adelaide crowd.

Event, inthemix.com.au, Review, Writing

Cut Le Rock @ Minke

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Getting to Minke at our usual time of “last bus into town”, I was disappointed to see a small turn out of maybe a hundred people spread between the two levels. Then again, with Dave Seaman playing Traffic on the same night, and Clash of the Titans on Saturday, I wasn’t surprised. Breaks is, after all, an emerging scene here, and the vibe of the place reminded me a lot of the early dnb shows – most of the people there at that early stage in the evening were either industry, or friend of the DJs. However, like the early dnb shows, the DJs played as if to 5000 people, as Skywalker and Jayar kept those few that were dancing on the floor for the majority of their sets, playing a mixed bag of funky and tech breaks, building up the party vibe as a few more people wandered in.

Journeying downstairs, the mood was more relaxed, as Denorthwode played popular hiphop to a chilled crowd. Whist it was nice, I was up for more up tempo music, so we travelled upstairs again, to be greeted the splendid sounds of Stephen King, who decided to entertain us all with a set of old school breaks. Playing such gems as Herbie Handcocks’ Rockit and Coldcut’s wonderful remix of Paid in Full, he enticed the growing crowd out onto the floor. Wanting to stay for a while as his tune selection was wonderful, and his mixing superb, he had to compete with the Beat Smugglers downstairs, which was unfortunate, as they won my interest, and we headed down again.

The Beat Smugglers, if you haven’t seen them, are simply amazing. A funk band with a dance mentality, these guys know how to put on a show. Even with one man down for half their act, they still managed to get the now packed place jumping, rocking with their not-so-unique but ever-so-funky blend of funk and hiphop music. When Kim Dezen arrived after his Wozone appearance, he took the band up another level, scratching superbly over their infectious beats, and not a head in the place was still. Thinking Cut Le Rock was on at 2:30, we trudged upstairs again. To our surprise, he hadn’t started, and he didn’t start until 3, which kinda annoyed me as I would have liked to see more of the Beat Smugglers. I dashed downstairs, and missed their last tune, started chatting to a few people, then dashed back upstairs.

By this time the place was nicely filled with about 400 people (but I’m bad at judging crowds), reminding me further of the early dnb scene, as no one would go out until the main act would come on, then there’d be millions of people. As Cut Le Rock had already started I manoeuvred my way to the front to get a close look. Cut Le Rock has been on my “must see” list for about 5 years now, and it was well worth the wait, as he put on a show that simply blew the place up, quite literally. His scratching was simply amazing. He was responsible for guiding the Scratch Perverts away from technical showmanship to be more dancefloor orientated, and, as with them, it shows true turntable skillmanship to be able to mix so well, and keep the dancefloor moving. His track selection was quite a surprise, being all mainly bigbeat, playing such artists as Fat Boy Slim, FreeStylers, and of course dropping a few of his own tracks to boot! Whoever said Bigbeat was dead has not seen Cut Le Rock.

More surprising was the fact that the crowd appeared to lap it up. People were jumping about and cheering as he dropped track after track of happy, funky party music. I’m sure that both he and the crowd could have kept going all night, but unfortunately the wonderful BOSE sound system there has a fatal flaw in that if the computer overheats, the sound dies, as it appeared to do around about 4:15. They played around with it for a while, but to me it looked like they wouldn’t have it fixed quickly, which was a real pity, because everyone was enjoying it immensely up until that point. Why they didn’t move Cut Le Rock immediately downstairs is a mystery, as I’m sure a lot of people, like us, took their cue to leave at that time.

This night reinforced my view that breaks is a growing scene that needs more class acts like Cut Le Rock to come and absolutely rock Adelaide to its foundations at ALL types of shows, not just clubs. The skillmanship and professionalism in the face of a technical breakdown was a joy to behold, unlike other DJ’s who have hissy fits and swear never to come back. He took it firmly in his stride, assisted where he could, and chatted to fans and let people take photos with a laugh and a smile that is refreshing to see from an international DJ. I for one can’t wait to see him again, and suggest that you do too.